NordVPN Review

By Tom Spark on December 2, 2015

Good / NordVPN has improved speeds, an much-needed application redesign, and Netflix compatibility with a unique “dedicated IP” feature within the app.

Bad / NordVPN has increased pricing significantly. In my video review, I encountered a WebRTC IP leak. Still no live chat. Pricing on website is a bad scammy with frequent deals and incentives outside of main pricing page. Additionally, the worst part is that sometimes NordVPN proves too be so buggy and unreliable you can’t even get it working!!!

Verdict / NordVPN has drastically improved their service offering in terms of useability, speed, and extra server connection features. However, security improvements and a cheaper pricing point could make it an easier recommendation.

NordVPN claims it is the world’s most advanced VPN–and it’s the poster child of PCmag, winning “editor’s choice” alongside PIA (they advertise this all over their site). NordVPN’s double encryption and super fast servers seem appealing–but does it deserve so many accolades? Only a careful analysis of available features and a healthy amount of skepticism can decide the truth.

Pricing 6.5/10

NordVPN has increased their pricing. It use to be pretty cheap and affordable but now its pretty expensive. For one month, it costs $11.95, for 12 months, it cost $69, and for 6 months it costs $42. They still accept BTC and have a 30 day refund policy which is good.

NordVPN use to start out around $8 or so, so the pricing increase is pretty significant. However, their service has also improved drastically.

Software 5/10

WARNING:

Take everything below this with a grain of salt. When NordVPN works, it works great. However, I’ve found that the app sometimes won’t even connect or work at ALL! As of 2018, I can’t get the app to work. Check out some of of my top rated alternatives below:

My top 3 VPNs:

#1

#2

#3

It’s cleaner, easier to use and install, and it has some nice features. Last time I reviewed the app, it was clunky and buggy. Now the main interface works with a visual map type interface where you can pick your server. When you pick a country, the app automatically picks an ideal server based on your location. This gives you a sort of limited control since you can pick from a list of selected servers, but you can’t really pick individual city servers. It’s very noob friendly and easy to use to get a good speed and connection.

There are also other ways to pick your server by choosing from a few different server options, like a dedicated IP connection–for example (which actually works with Netflix!). I really like that they added this compatibility since it really makes NordVPN stand out from other competitors. It’s really one of the only apps I’ve seen that uses dedicated IPs included. However, I’m not exactly sure how “dedicated” these IPs are. Now, when you buy a dedicated IP from something like TorGuard it’s unique to you. With these NordVPN dedicated IPs, I have a feeling that they are more like unique shared IPs seperate from the IPs used for other uses. Whatever the case, they do seem to work with Netflix–as of now.

This time around, it also has a few more settings like kill switches to configure which is good for torrenting securely.

Mobile Software 10/10

When NordVPN updated their main app, they went ahead and used more or less the same interface for their mobile version. This is a GOOD thing, since their old mobile app sucked hard. Now the new mobile app is easy to use and very solid for mobile VPN use. It can compete with the best VPN apps out there. It even has a quick connect feature which is good for beginners.

Extra Services 9/10

NordVPN provides six simultaneous connections. Since my first review, they’ve fixed their Chrome app, and they still offer a few other little additions which are sorta cool like how they offer DoubleVPN, which is their unique second encryption service.

NordVPN also offers an encrypted chat platform hosted on their site that seems semi-useful. I would have liked to see a whole application for this. I also consider their compatibility with Netflix a good thing and it definitely is worth checking out. They also have some obfuscation options available as well, which is good to see for Chinese users.

Website 7/10

NordVPN’s website is designed well, and has plenty of graphic and text to point users to why they should use NordVPN, but the site doesn’t have as much information as I would like about the various feature sets.

If you want to read more about the features, it takes you to another page with just one or two more sentences which is disappointing. Additionally, finding information can be a bit hard, and it’s just easier to find information about NordVPN via Google about NordVPN than using their site.

Setting up your account on NordVPN is relatively simple and requires you to pay simply, get access to your account, and download the supported software. These tabs are supported through the clean main dashboard interface.

The site has plenty of guides on installation methods for various protocols, as well as support for DD-WRT routers, Tomato, Windows Phone, and other platforms. I couldn’t find any forums or active communities on the site.

Servers 10/10

NordVPN has steadily increased their server offerings since my first review, and I found all of the servers I tested to be very capable and work well with good speeds, fast connection times and good reliability.

Privacy 0/10

NordVPN didn’t have any IP leaks in my tests. They have decent 256-bit encryption according to their site, but it can be hard to find information on their ciphers and protocols used (OpenVPN). I would like to see more information about this in their app.

Speeds 8/10

NordVPN has increased their speeds a good amount to compare with other VPN providers. Speed tests all gave very good results, but torrent speeds were a tad bit on the average side of things. Whatever you need a VPN for–whether browsing, streaming, downloading, gaming–NordVPN should be able to handle it fine.

Support 8.5/10

NordVPN still does have live chat which is awesome. The only thing is its not always available, but if you go on the site and there’s a little bubble in the corner, that means they are there. They just have standard ticket supports.

Verdict

NordVPN has made some great improvements from my previous review. Watch the YouTube video at the beginning of this NordVPN to see a complete picture. Overall, you can get some good speeds, Netflix compatibility, and a decent app–but it’s a bit pricey and IP leaks are common.